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Letter from Mr Power Regarding National Funding Formula

Please read the letter from Mr Power regarding the proposed National Funding Formula that has been reported in the national press during the past few days.

26 January 2017

Dear Parent/Guardian

As you may have read in the local and national press recently, a new National Funding Formula for schools has been developed and this is open for consultation until 22 March 2017. In summary, the current proposals will lead to very significant budget cuts for the vast majority of schools in Cheshire East from September 2018.

The key issue with the proposed formula relates to its attempt to divert significant sums of money to schools serving very disadvantaged communities. While we agree with the principle of providing additional support to students in challenging circumstances, the reality is that these additional resources are being found by reducing funding to other schools. This has left many schools with potential budget cuts that will make it impossible for them to sustain provision at current levels. This will have inevitable consequences for curriculum breadth; extra-curricular opportunities; staffing levels; lesson resources etc.

In our view, the National Funding Formula needs to be amended to ensure that all schools can educate their children effectively, regardless of their intake. This is manifestly not the case under the current proposals. Some simple changes to the formula could allow all schools to be given a level of funding that would secure the key elements of their provision. This would leave the Government free to divert additional funds to areas of deprivation as they deem appropriate.

In our view, however, this national consultation process is very technical and incomprehensible to those without a detailed knowledge of school funding systems. As a result, we feel that the best course of action would be for as many of our parents as possible to write to our MP (David Rutley) at: